Background/Aims: The recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been associated with changes in the epidemiology of not only infectious diseases but also several non-infectious conditions. This study investigated changes in the recorded incidence of various rheumatic diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The number of patients for each disease from January 2016 to December 2020 was obtained from the Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service database. We compared the incidence of nine rheumatic diseases (seropositive rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus [SLE], idiopathic inflammatory myositis [IIM], ankylosing spondylitis [AS], systemic sclerosis, Sjögren’s syndrome, Behçet’s disease [BD], polymyalgia rheumatica, and gout) and hypertensive diseases to control for changes in healthcare utilisation before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. The disease incidence before and after the COVID-19 outbreak was compared using the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and quasi- Poisson analyses. Results: Compared with the predicted incidence in 2020 using the ARIMA model, the monthly incidence of SLE, BD, AS, and gout temporarily significantly decreased, whereas other rheumatic diseases and hypertensive diseases were within the 95% confidence interval (CI) of the predicted values in the first half of 2020. In age- and sex-adjusted quasi-Poisson regression analysis, the annual incidences of IIM (rate ratio [RR], 0.473; 95% CI, 0.307 to 0.697), SLE (RR, 0.845; 95% CI, 0.798 to 0.895), and BD (RR, 0.850; 95% CI, 0.796 to 0.906) were significantly decreased compared with those in the previous 4 years. Conclusions The recorded annual incidence of some rheumatic diseases, including IIM, SLE, and BD, decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Soybean is one of the world’s most widely cultivated food crops, and soybean seeds are supplied from national seed resources in Korea. However, the transmission of seed-borne diseases through infected soybean seeds is problematic. Among these diseases, soybean seed decay is caused by Diaporthe spp. Infecting the pods, and the infected seeds show rot ting symptoms. Most diseased seeds are removed during the selection process; however, it is difficult to distinguish infected seeds that do not display symptoms. Hence, a sequencebased method was devised to screen Diaporthe-infected seeds. Based on the nuclear riboso mal internal transcribe spacer (ITS) region of the pathogen, a primer was designed to distin guish the infection from other soybean seed pathogens. As a result of the comparison between healthy and Diaporthe-diseased seeds by using the primers, Diaporthe was detected only in the diseased seeds. Therefore, it is possible to distribute healthy soybean seeds by detecting Diaporthe-diseased seeds at the genetic level using the Diaporthe-specific primers.

Background: and Purpose: The Movement Disorder Society-Sponsored Revision of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) is widely used for estimating the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Translation and validation of the MDS-UPDRS is necessary for non-English speaking countries and regions. The aim of this study was to validate the Korean version of the MDS-UPDRS. Methods: Altogether, 362 patients in 19 centers were recruited for this study. We translated the MDS-UPDRS to Korean using the translation-back translation method and cognitive pretesting. We performed both confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses to validate the scale.We calculated the comparative fit index (CFI) for confirmatory factor analysis, and used unweighted least squares for exploratory factor analysis. Results: The CFI was higher than 0.90 for all parts of the scale. Exploratory factor analysis also showed that the Korean MDS-UPDRS has the same number of factors in each part as the English version. Conclusions The Korean MDS-UPDRS has the same overall structure as the English MDSUPDRS. Our translated scale can be designated as the official Korean MDS-UPDRS.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to clarify the role of acute alcohol use and alcohol use disorder in individuals exhibiting suicidal behaviors, including repetition of suicide attempt. METHODS: Data pertaining to 691 suicide attempters who had visited an emergency center and had been followed-up from 2010 to 2015 were gathered. Participants were categorized into following three groups according to alcohol use pattern at the time of the suicide attempt: 1) suicide attempters with neither alcohol use disorder nor acute alcohol consumption (NAU), 2) suicide attempters who had used alcohol during the suicide attempt but did not have alcohol use disorder (AAU), and 3) suicide attempters with alcohol use disorder (AUD). Group comparisons and multivariate Cox proportional models for suicidal behavior were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: AUD have been shown to have lower lethality of suicide attempt but higher risk of suicide reattempts in the future. Furthermore, positive relationships between suicide reattempts and AUD persisted throughout the longer period than other groups. CONCLUSION Suicide attempters with AUD should be considered a high-risk group for suicide reattempts in future, and this group should be followed-up for a longer period with specialized care program.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to identify the differences of demographic and clinical characteristics between child-adolescents who received medical inpatient care and non-hospitalized adolescents after suicide attempts. METHODS: The study included 35 child-adolescents who were hospitalized (Admission group) and 114 child-adolescents who were not hospitalized (Non-Admission group) as a result of a suicide attempt from 2009 to 2015. We compared sociodemographic, clinical, and suicide attempt-related characteristics through a chi-square test and logistic regression analysis to evaluate the differences between the two groups. RESULTS: Child-adolescents of this study most commonly attempted suicide by poisoning, and for motivation of interpersonal problems. Admission group had significantly fewer attempts through injury by sharp objects (χ²=4.374, p=0.037) and attempted suicide with a higher chance of actually dying when compared to Risk-Rescue Rating Scale (t=1.981, p=0.049). In addition, Admission group had relatively common motivation for academic problems (χ²=12.082, p=0.001) and less motivation for interpersonal difficulties. (χ²=9.869, p=0.002) Psychiatric diagnosis at the time of visiting the emergency department showed higher rates of depression in the admission group than Non-Admission group (χ²=8.649, p=0.003). The results of logistic regression showed that depression affects hospitalization (OR=2.783, 95% CI 1.092–7.089, p=0.032). CONCLUSIONS: This study is meaningful in that it revealed the social and clinical characteristics of all child-adolescents who were hospitalized at a university hospital after attempting suicide. This study identified differences in motivation, methods, and psychiatric diagnosis of hospitalized adolescents and those who were not. Therefore, the results may help adolescent suicide attempters to get a discriminatory approach based on their admission.
Adolescent ; Adolescent, Hospitalized ; Child ; Depression ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Logistic Models ; Mental Disorders ; Motivation ; Poisoning ; Suicide ; Suicide, Attempted

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the mediating roles of uncontrolled eating and sedentary behaviours in the link of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and weight. METHODS: A total of 352 children in fifth and sixth grade participated in the present study by completing the self-rated Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire and Children of Alcoholics Screening Test during regular classes. An additional questionnaire completed by their parents provided information about the children's ADHD and emotional symptoms, sedentary behaviour based on screen time, and parental variables. The questionnaires were surveyed within one week after their schools' annual physical check-up. RESULTS: Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that uncontrolled eating was complete mediator in association between ADHD symptoms and body mass index (BMI) for boys, incomplete mediator for girls. However, screen time had no significant effect on the ADHD symptoms-BMI link for both gender. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study suggest that gender specific intervention programs may be need to help eating behaviour in children with ADHD and overweight.
Alcoholics ; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity* ; Body Mass Index ; Child ; Eating* ; Female ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; Negotiating ; Overweight ; Parents

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to clarify the role of alcohol use disorders and acute alcohol consumption in suicide attempts by gender. METHODS: Data of 1,152 suicide attempters(487 males and 742 females) who had visited an emergency center was gathered. Suicide attempts were categorized into three groups according to alcohol use: an alcohol use disorder group(AUD), an acute alcohol use group(AAU), and a no-alcohol use group(NAU). The intent and lethality of suicide attempts were evaluated by Suicidal Intents Scale and Risk-Rescue Rating Scale. RESULTS: For Suicidal Intents Scale score, the male AUD group revealed a significantly lower mean score than the male AAU one. However, there were no statistically significant differences for female subjects across subgroups. With regard to the Risk-Rescue Rating Scale score, there were no significant differences for males, while the AUD group showed both the lowest highest rescue scores and lowest risk-rescue scores within female groups. CONCLUSIONS: AUD in females was more likely regarding impulsive suicide attempts with high rescue chances. Consuming alcohol might have different effect on suicide attempts by gender and our study shows that alcohol use is an important risk factor according to gender, particularly with regard to female suicide attempts.
Alcohol Drinking ; Emergencies ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Risk Factors ; Suicide

OBJECTIVE: To examine the reliability and validity of the self-report Korean version of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-Kr) in the community sample. METHODS: The SDQ-Kr was administered to a large sample of school children and adolescents (n=2814) and youth attendees of a psychiatric clinic (n=385) aged 11-16 years. To examine temporal stability, the same questionnaire was administered to a subsample of 167 school youths five to six weeks after the initial assessment. To examine the reliability, we calculated Cronbach's alpha coefficients for internal consistency and Pearson's correlations for test-retest stability. In order to evaluate the factorial structure of the SDQ-Kr items, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with varimax rotation. Finally, discriminant validity was examined by using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves employing the area under the curve (AUC) as an index of discriminant ability. RESULTS: Although the internal consistency of some subscales of the SDQ-Kr was somewhat less satisfactory (alpha coefficients; 0.28-0.54) than the English original, coefficients for the total difficulties scores approached sufficient levels (coefficients; 0.69). Other psychometric properties including discriminant validity (AUC for total difficulties and four subscales >0.7) were comparable to those obtained in other language studies. CONCLUSION: The self-report SDQ-Kr exhibited a low level of reliability, indicating that some items need to be further evaluated and revised to improve the psychometric properties. We suggest that the total difficulties score could be used with more confidence for screening possible mental health problems in youths.
Adolescent ; Child ; Humans ; Korea* ; Mass Screening ; Mental Health ; Psychometrics* ; Reproducibility of Results ; ROC Curve